


Park Place: Or, How Red Team Nearly Ceased To Be

by mantisbelle



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Gen, Monopoly (Board Game), Red Team Locus | Samuel Ortez, Team Bonding, red team shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 13:16:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16476269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mantisbelle/pseuds/mantisbelle
Summary: Red Team has a bond. An unbreakable bond. It has survived The Meta, civil wars, and more firefights than they could count. It’s even survived one of them leaving. Surely nothing could make Red Team fall apart at the seams.Nothing perhaps, except a game of Monopoly.





	1. Pregame

**Author's Note:**

  * For [grayscaleTestimony](https://archiveofourown.org/users/grayscaleTestimony/gifts).



> Written for my good friend greyscaleTestimony.
> 
> All of Lopez's lines are translated in chapter endnotes. 
> 
> Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy it.

"Men!" Sarge stood at the front of the room with his chest puffed out and his hands on his hips in a clear attempt to come off as commanding. The men he wished to command— Red Team, only seemed disinterested in him as they sat at the round table in Red Base’s kitchen— or whatever it was that passed for a kitchen there. 

Sarge frowned for a half-second. "I am concerned about a continual falling of morale!"   
  
As if Sarge’s words had managed to rouse him, Grif let out a groan. "You’re just noticing it now?" Already there was the tint of irritation at the edge of his tone. It probably would have been a lot less pronounced if Sarge hadn’t decided to go making announcements at five o’clock in the evening. 

"Enough of that." Sarge grumbled. "There has been a significant failing of morale among Red Team! None of you have done anything today, and our new recruit is missing. How can any of you hope to have moderately successful military careers if I, your commanding officer, do nothing to improve relations among my own men?"    
  
" _ Moderately successful _ ?" Simmons asked, unable to help the slight offense that crept into his tone. He leaned back in his seat slightly, back rigidly straight.    
  
"Improving relations sounds good!" Donut spoke up, his head snapping up from the magazine that he’d been poring over ever since it had arrived there in a shipment from Chorus that morning. "It’s always important to know how to get close to others!"   
  
"Exactly Donut!" Sarge charged onward. "And that is why I am ordering all active members of Red Team to engage in a team building exercise."    
  
"This already sounds stupid." Grif grumbled. Simmons looked across at him and sighed before he looked up at Sarge.    
  
"What kind of team building exercise, sir?" He asked.    
  
"Board games, of course!"    
  
The whole room went still at that. Three faces stared back at him, uncomprehending expressions writ across each of them.   
  
"Uh, Sarge?" Donut asked. "How are board games going to improve morale? Are we playing twister? You know I always like wrapping myself up in my friends!"   
  
Sarge looked over the room, and he grinned wide. "We will be building the team, by forcing you against each other! Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer! And if your friends are also your enemies, nobody can be closer than them."    
  
The whole room went silent and stilled. Simmons swallowed hard, a bad feeling already settling into his stomach that told him that he probably really wasn't going to like where this ended up going. He looked across at Sarge. "Sir— " He started. "Which game do you intend for us to play, exactly?"    
  
And Sarge  _ grinned _ .

* * *

Sarge had made the announcement that they were going to be playing the worst board game that had ever existed, and Grif already hated everything about it. About the only thing that had him willing to attend was the fact that he'd been ordered to order the team pizza. Because of that, he had a guarantee that he could pick the toppings and the place where the pizza came from. And Grif fully intended to indulge since Sarge would be paying anyways. 

As it turned out, being on Red Team didn’t always entirely suck. Pizza was good in that it could make most things suck less.

But pizza wasn’t the only job he’d been given to take care of. 

He'd also been sent off on the all important task of making sure that all of Red Team actually bothered to show up. It was why he stood outside of A'rynasea, in the little valley where Locus tended to park her. Whether or not Locus was actually  _ in  _ the fucking ship Grif didn't know, since he had a feeling that Locus was going to do things exclusively in active camo if he was given the chance. If he showed up for game night, which Grif considered to be a pretty big  _ if _ because it seemed like Locus had already experienced so much bullshit in his life that he would never want to involve himself with a board game. If given the chance, he would probably use camo and leave during an argument or something. 

If that happened, Grif probably wouldn’t even blame the guy for it.   
  
But Grif was there on a mission, so he made his way to the front of the ship and looked up at the closed side door. He took a breath, rolled his eyes, and stepped forward to knock at A’rynasea’s hull.    
  
On the other side, he could hear the quiet murmuring of a monitor playing a news broadcast. It was accompanied by the sound of someone walking around until the door opened to reveal a very tired looking Locus, who also looked like he'd just gotten out of the shower if how wet his hair was any indication.    
  
He stared down at Grif, anything but amused. "What is it?"   
  
"You've been ordered to Red Base." Grif explained. "By Sarge."   
  
"I'm not on Red Team." Locus deadpanned his response as usual.   
  
"Yeah." Grif sighed. "Sarge thinks you are, so you are. And Simmons and Donut and Lopez like you and shit so you can't really escape it. You've been ordered to Red Base for a fucking board game night, and if you don't go Sarge will probably give you shit for weeks so." He leaned against the hull of A'rynasea. The metal was surprisingly warm against his skin. "You should probably come or whatever."    
  
Locus' expression cooled into frustrated disbelief. "A... board game."    
  
"Yeah." Grif scratched at his neck for a moment, like annoyance was bubbling under his skin and making him itch. "Sarge is making us play fucking monopoly because it'll make us hate each other or something."    
  
"That doesn't make any sense."    
  
"Sarge."    
  
"Point taken." Locus conceded. "How soon am I expected there?"    
  
"Whenever pizza gets here." Grif said. "And I haven't ordered it yet, so." He shrugged his shoulders. "It might be better to show up early though. Not that I'd blame you if you wanted to pre-drink before showing up. I feel like I need to and I've already been there." He stretched his shoulders. "And make sure Lopez comes. He'll listen to you before he listens to me."    
  
Locus sighed. "You're probably right." He looked back over his shoulder and into his ship. "I'll see you this evening." Locus said quietly. 

"One more thing." Grif cut Locus off before he could go in. "You’re probably going to need to drive me to Chorus since nobody will deliver out here. I’ve checked."

Locus’ jaw  _ twitched _ in irritation. "Is that all?" He growled at Grif.

"Yeah." He said. "That’s it. I’ll come when I need your help."

"Understood." Locus began to back away from the door, clearly frustrated but unwilling to address it. "Thank you, Grif." 

Grif said his goodbye and Locus closed the door to his ship. He probably wanted to go off and do whatever he could to get ready before he had to leave.    
  
With his first chore done, Grif began on his way back to Red Base.    
  
The night was  _ definitely  _ going to suck. 

* * *

"Donut!" Sarge said, and it was much more than enough to get his attention all at once. Donut looked up at him, from the plate of cheese that he was chopping. He was hoping to provide at least some of the amenities for the night. It would be  _ kind of _ like a wine and cheese hour, if he got his way. That meant that he had wine to pair, cheese to chop, and grapes to rinse, since he didn’t intend on being anything other than the perfect host to his teammates.   
  
He smiled up at Sarge though. "What is it?"    
  
"I have an important task for you." Sarge's voice dropped in volume as he began to explain. "I have reason to believe that we are going to need a banker, and I can't trust any of you to do the job."    
  
"Oh, I dunno." Donut said. "I don’t think I’m  _ that  _ good at math. Simmons can do long division in his head."      
  
"Not you, Donut." Sarge looked over his shoulder to make sure that the two of them weren't being listened in on. "I have considered all of the options. Simmons and Grif cannot be trusted with an important role like banker, and if we trusted Lopez with the role we would be dealing in Pesos! I don't know the exchange rate!"   
  
Donut hummed. "What about Locus? You already sent Grif to get him, didn't you?"   
  
"A man with a history of crime can't be trusted with money! Use your noggin Donut!" Sarge looked back over his shoulder once more. "That’s how you end up with a financial crash! Or someone like Felix!"   
  
Donut pursed his lips and looked down at the plate of cheese. He didn't know what Sarge was asking him for all of a sudden. Clearly it was  _ something _ , but he had absolutely no idea what Sarge meant for him to do.    
  
Lucky for him, Sarge just took the chance to continue his explanation without needing any extra prompting ahead of time.    
  
"I need for you to go and find the perfect common enemy for everyone involved." Sarge said. "A banker must be someone we can  _ trust _ , but also someone that everyone playing in a game of monopoly can hold as a common enemy to keep us close! What we need... is a Blue!"   
  
Donut grinned wide and snapped a fast salute. "If what you need is to find a good guy, Private Donut is your man!"   
  
"I know I can always count on you, Donut." Sarge said. "Now you get off to that. I can cut the cheese for you."

* * *

Simmons had been left with the task of finding the nearly ancient Monopoly board which Sarge had held onto for years. It wasn’t going to be easy work, mostly because Sarge's things tended to get lost easily because Sarge wasn't exactly good at keeping his things together. It wasn't that he was  _ sloppy  _ as much as it was that he was just disorganized, since Sarge seemed to operate better in chaos anyways.

That was how Simmons ended up in Sarge's garage, which was in actuality the burned out remains of what had once been considered Red Base, before Donut had gone on his accidental arson spree. It was rickety and could barely be considered safe, but it did do the job of keeping Sarge’s mess constrained to one place. The same couldn’t be said for the rest of the Red’s messes.

The only thing was that Simmons didn’t know how long he was going to be stuck looking around in there, since finding thing in Sarge’s garage tended to be impossible, between the ragtag collection of items and the random nature of their scattering.

It explained the hell out of Lopez and Simmons’ prosthetics, at the least. Sarge could do wonders with random equipment.

"Lopez?" Simmons asked into the empty space of the room. "Are you in here?"   
  
There wasn’t any answer. That meant that either Lopez  _ was  _ there and didn’t feel like talking to him (likely), or if he was going to talk, he was going to say some sort of insult which Simmons knew he wasn’t going to be able to understand already (also likely).    
  
Simmons shook his head and finally began to scan the racks that had been filled to the brim with all manner of tools and supplies. If there was indeed a Monopoly board somewhere in that garage, he had to assume that it would be on one of those racks.    
  
How long he ended up actually searching, Simmons didn’t know. But he did eventually find the board, in a tattered old box that looked like it had been beaten over and over until it was barely holding together at the seams. He had to stretch to pull it down, and when he did the bottom of the box nearly fell apart, the entire side edge held on by nothing but a single strip of duct tape.   
  
Simmons removed the lid and put it under the bottom of the box to see whether or not he could actually keep it all together. He took it with him and the two of them began on his way back to Red Base.    
  
When he arrived, Sarge was there alone.    
  
"Sir!" Simmons announced his arrival. "I have it!"   
  
"Good! Simmons," Sarge gestured to the other side of the table. "Did you find all of the pieces?"   
  
"Uh-" Simmons blinked. "Yeah, I think so."    
  
"Good!" Sarge stretched out. "Once we have everyone here and Donut’s found us a banker, we’ll be able to start. Oh, I’m so excited!"   
  
Simmons put on a smile, like it would be enough to hide how he was a little bit hurt by the knowledge that he’d been passed over for the chance to play the banker. It would have been better than playing the game like everyone else. At least, for Simmons it would have been better.    
  
"I’m sure the evening will go swimmingly." Simmons said as he looked around the kitchen of Red Base. "Should I set us up in here or— "    
  
Sarge shot him a look. "In the lounge, Simmons!" He responded quickly. "It's like you’ve missed the last amendment to Red Base Rules."    
  
Simmons blinked. "Sir, we haven’t amended the rules since after the war on Chorus."    
  
And Simmons really didn’t like that Sarge’s response was to give him a horrified look as he asked: "You mean that my proposal to delineate the difference between a  _ Freelancer  _ and a  _ freelancer  _ never went through?"    
  
And Simmons sighed. "No, sir." He said. "I don’t think so."

* * *

 

When Donut arrived there, most of Blue Base was devoid of Blues. There was no sign of  _ any  _ of them, really. He figured that it had to mean that the Blues were just busy, but what they would be busy with, he didn’t really know. What sort of trouble the Blues got up to was usually a mystery to him.    
  
"Blue Team!" Donut announced his presence as he stepped into their little kitchen. His armored boots clicked against the floor as he stepped inside."It’s Donut! I really need one of you right now."    
  
He heard a sound from one of the bedrooms, and moments later he watched as Tucker peeked his head out of one of the doors in the hall. "Donut?" He asked. His voice was groggy. He groaned and stood up straight before he stepped out of the room in already-crumpled clothes.    
  
"Oh, hey Tucker!" Donut greeted the Blue with a smile. "I’m glad to see you. I need your help."    
  
Tucker blinked and made a beeline for the coffee maker. He poked at one of the buttons and groaned when it didn’t respond at all. It was probably broken. "What the hell could you need me for?" Tucker asked, clearly already annoyed. "Because if its Red Team shit, it’s probably stupid."    
  
"We need a banker." Donut offered as an explanation. "Someone who knows how to take and give money a lot. Someone that can put take things in and out— "    
  
Tucker blinked and stared at him. "What?" He grumbled before Donut got a chance to finish.   
  
"A banker!" Donut explained. "You know, money! Someone that knows how to get goods and use services."    
  
Tucker stared at him. The corner of his mouth twitched for a second. "Donut," He said. "You’re talking about a hooker, not a banker."    
  
"I— " Donut’s face got hot. " _ No I wasn’t!" _   
  
"Whatever, dude." Tucker grumbled. "Find someone else."    
  
"Okay." Donut said, but he forced the smile as he turned and walked out of the other side of the base. "Maybe I should find someone that didn’t just roll out of bed, anyways! Being presentable is important, Tucker." 

"Whatever, dude." Tucker muttered. "You have Wash kick your ass in training every day and tell me you don’t need a nap too." 

"I’ve had Wash do a lot more than kick my ass!" Donut shouted back to Tucker as he made his way out of the building.

Outside, he found Washington and Caboose. 

The two of them seemed to be engaged in some sort of training exercise, but what kind Donut didn’t know. He was a man who knew a lot about squats and yoga, but he didn’t know what sorts of things the Blues liked to do for training. It was obvious enough that they all did  _ a lot _ of squats, but Donut knew as well as anyone that squats alone weren’t enough to make you a tight fit.

He put on a smile and approached though. 

Surely, talking to the two of them would be productive.    
  
Caboose noticed him first. "Oh!" He cried. "Major Macaron!"   
  
"Hi Caboose!" Donut said with a wide smile which was hidden behind his helmet. Sarge had taught him never to go into enemy territory without using protection. Despite Sarge’s warning, he removed his helmet. "How are you?"   
  
"Oh, hello." Washington said. "Donut."    
  
"Hey, Wash." Donut said, still grinning wide.    
  
Caboose sat up and stretched his arms in one motion. "Agent Washington and I were just working on a new way to keep me in shape. I think I’m a rectangle, but Washington says that I’m not in shape  _ even though a rectangle is a shape _ ."    
  
"That makes sense." Donut said. "Sarge wanted me to come over and see if I could find help with something. I wanted for Tucker to be my man, but he doesn’t really seem interested." He let out a quiet little sigh. "And Sarge wasn’t very clear about what he wanted for me to look for."    
  
Wash looked down at Caboose for a moment. "Could you explain what you need help with?" He asked. "Because if Sarge is trying to test a death machine, I don’t think any of us are interested."    
  
"He wanted me to find a banker."    
  
"Oh!" Caboose spoke up. "You could always go to earth and then to that street made out of walls! Or you could go to Chorus. I think Kimball said that they were making a bank there so that they could do things." 

Donut shrugged. "I mean, Sarge wanted me to find someone who could be the banker for a game."

Wash’s eyes shot open in alarm and understanding. "What kind of  _ game? _ "

"Monopoly!"

"Yeah." Caboose said. "I think you’re going to have to go to that wall street for that."

"We’re not interested." Washington finished with a deadpan tone.

As far as the things that Wash had done to him went, Donut figured rejection wasn’t  _ that _ bad.

* * *

With Simmons’ help, the lounge in Red Base had been turned into the perfect space for a night of board games with his team. Sarge beamed with pride at the sight. The couches had been pulled into place around the card table where they’d had so many of their meetings in the past. A red cloth had even been tossed over it to hide the knife gouges that had been made during one particularly heated meeting.

When the time came, Sarge knew that his men would make themselves comfortable with their own pillows and blankets and the end of the night was likely to end with everyone falling asleep on the various couches and next to each other. 

There was of course, a chance that the Reds would end up so mad at each other that wouldn’t happen, Sarge knew. 

It was why he’d ordered Grif to order pizza for the night. He could only hope that the orange soldier would make the perfect choice for the night. Especially since it seemed like pizza was the only thing he actually knew all that well.

Sarge took a breath. "Nice work, Simmons." He said as he walked further into the room and checked that his favorite couch had been placed in a position of honor as it normally would be during one of Red Team's meetings. "This seems perfectly satisfactory."    
  
"Thank you, Sir." Simmons said as he began to pick pieces out of the tattered Monopoly box that he'd found. "Are you planning to play with us tonight?"   
  
"Of course!" Sarge flopped down onto one of the couches. "What kind of commander would I be if I subjected my men to horrible things and didn't put myself into the same line of fire? I'd be a dirty Blue!" He stretched out and watched Simmons as he began to pile the game pieces into the center of the board. "Besides, if I didn't play, how would I be able to properly gauge the success of the exercise? You have to think about these things, Simmons."   
  
Simmons sighed. "I suppose that's a good point, but I'm wondering-" His brow furrowed, between the fleshy side of his face and the metallic plating which Sarge had installed so many years before. "How do you plan to have us play Monopoly if we don't have a banker? Because if we need one, I would be glad to-"   
  
"I have a banker!" Sarge cut Simmons off. "I sent Donut to go and find one that can be unbiased and can be trusted with our money."   
  
And he couldn't lie if he didn't see Simmons frown at least a little bit. "Oh." Simmons said. "Who's the banker?"   
  
Sarge put on a confident grin. "The best person for the job possible!"   
  
Simmons blinked. "You don't know, do you?"    
  
Sarge wouldn't let himself confirm one way or the other. Sometimes the best things came as surprises, after all.

* * *

"There's no way you're getting me to do anything that has anything to do with Monopoly." Kai said as she stretched out on top of Blue Base on an old lawn chair. "Me and Dex played that like once when we were kids, and I'm pretty sure we both tried to drown each other. Either that or our neighbors tried to call CPS. No way."    
  
Donut grinned across at her. "But you'd be perfect!" He explained his argument. "You're a _ successful businesswoman! _ "   
  
"Bitch, of course I am!" Kai replied as she stretched out a bit more. "But I'm not playing with toy money. If it's real money, I'll talk. But since it’s fake and I’m definitely not getting a cut, you're out of luck."    
  
Donut felt his heart sink and he reached into a compartment in his armor to pull out the little black address book that he'd used to log all of his friends on Iris in. When he began flipping through, he found that there was nobody left except for one or two that he could ask, and last he'd heard Doc had gone off to a medical conference on Chorus. He didn't know much about it.    
  
Knowing the one person that was left, Donut really wasn't sure that he could pull off the mission. And going back to Sarge as a failure didn't sound so good to him, he'd spent so much time trying to get himself above private.    
  
He looked back up at Kai. "Do you think you know where Carolina is?"   
  
"Uh." Kai sat up slightly. "Not really. She might be at the beach or kicking Wash’s ass or something."    
  
"Okay!" Donut began on his way away from the base. "Thanks Kai!"   
  
With every step toward the beach, Donut couldn't help the feeling that convincing Carolina was going to fail. She was definitely going to have better things to do than play Monopoly with them.    
  
But, she did slip into view, alongside two other people that Donut recognized quickly.    
  
She was talking to Locus and Grif about something, but Donut couldn't tell what.    
  
He saw Grif pick up his head long enough to get a look at him before he looked back towards Carolina and kept on talking. Locus stood with a more clear line of sight on him, and once he was under Locus' gaze, Donut realized that the wasn't going to get out from under it because Locus had sniper eyes. Intense and usually scary.   
  
"I can't say that it sounds like it'll be a fun night." Donut heard Carolina saying once he finally got close.    
  
"Yeah." Grif muttered. "It's going to suck."   
  
"We can-" Carolina noticed Donut then and cut herself off. "What's going on?"   
  
"Carolina!" Donut put on a wide smile behind his helmet. "I need to ask you a favor!"    
  
Carolina looked at him, pursed her lips, then looked to Locus and Grif both. The best that she got out of Locus was a slight shrug of the shoulders. Grif mostly just looked annoyed.    
  
She looked back at him. "What kind of favor?"   
  
"Sarge made me go and find a banker!" Donut explained. "Because he said he didn't trust any of our men to be impartial, and the ones that could be impartial either don't speak English or have criminal backgrounds, so we can’t trust anyone on Red Team!"    
  
If Locus took any offense to the statement, he went out of his way to keep from showing it, Donut realized. He looked back at Carolina. "I've asked everyone on Blue Team, and you're my only option left!"   
  
Grif looked between him and Carolina, and a moment later he spoke up. "We could still hang out." He offered. "I mean. I've been ordered to order pizza for the night anyways. If you wanted you could come over and we could chill after."   
  
Carolina blinked and sighed. "Donut?" She asked. "I don't really have a choice, do I?"   
  
"Uh…" Donut looked down at the book of names that he'd decided to carry with him. "Not really? Unless you want for me to get into trouble with Sarge, and I really don't want to get into trouble with Sarge. Being demoted really isn’t fun."  Grif snorted. "No fucking shit." 

Carolina nodded and then stared Grif in the eyes. "Who is paying for the pizza?"   
  
"Uh." Grif shrugged. "Sarge."    
  
"Okay." Carolina said. "I want a barbeque chicken pizza for myself.  _ And- _ " She emphasized the point by holding up three fingers. "I want two pepperoni pizzas delivered to Blue Base. Along with one order of breadsticks." A fourth finger popped up.   
  
"Shit." Grif shrugged. "If those are your terms, I'll take that."    
  
"Well then." Carolina looked across at Donut and grinned. "I guess I'm going to be your banker tonight."   
  
"Thank you!" Donut cried before he turned to begin the sprint back towards Red Base.    
  
_ Mission success. _


	2. The Game Begins

It was another two hours before Red Base was truly ready. There was a multitude of reasons for it, but the main one was Grif.

The length of time spent waiting _before_ the game could actually start had a lot more to do with the particular details of his pizza order. SInce it was both coming from Chorus and a large order, it needed time to be made, and then they would need to have someone fly to the planet to retrieve it since Chorus didn’t deliver out to Iris.

That had meant that Grif had been sent along to get the pizza, and he dragged Locus (who had requested the use of Washington’s armor for safety reasons) to Chorus to pick up the order. An order which contained no less than nine pizzas, five orders of breadsticks, five bottles of soda, and a cookie pizza for good measure which Grif had fully intended to hide away for him, Carolina, and Locus to share over beers later in the night.

As it turned out, Wash’s armor didn’t fit Locus as well as anyone had hoped, and Locus was kind of cranky about the idea of having to not only share his ship. Grif figured that at least somes of the frustration came from the fact that A’rynasea was a ship which was meant for a _specific purpose_ which was _not_ delivering pizza. Either that it or it was because it meant that the ship’s interior would smell like pizza for a little while.

When they arrived on Iris again, Grif was first to depart A’rynasea.

Carolina was sitting on one of the chairs on the hill beside the little valley where Locus liked to store the ship away at nights. She watched as Grif climbed out and stood up before she strode down toward the ship.

Grif climbed out to greet her.

"So." Carolina said. "Did you get my pizza?"

"Yeah." Grif said. "Two pepperoni, one barbeque chicken, and two orders of breadsticks." He added on the second order of breadsticks for good measure, since he thought it would win Carolina’s good graces. "It’s all in there with Locs."

"Cool." Carolina sighed. "I guess I’m banker then." 

"Yeah." Grif checked back over his shoulder to see that the door to the ship had been closed, and the scent of pizza had been trapped inside. He frowned. "You’re gonna help us carry shit to Red base, right?"

"I was planning to make sure Blue Base got the pizza I made you get for them." Carolina said. "It was supposed to be my night to cook, so I have a duty to take care of for them anyways." She stretched. "You can bring the barbeque chicken on to Red Base with you though."

Grif frowned. "That’s good." He said.

Moments later the door to A’rynasea opened once more, this time with Locus out of armor and looking much more comfortable in his civvies than he had in Wash’s gear. He carried Wash’s armor in a crate and wordlessly began on his way back towards Blue Base so that he could return it.

Grif looked back at Carolina. "I guess we should get the pizza then." 

He approached the ship and stepped inside to find that the pizzas had been left on the tiny table, in Locus’ tiny dining area. He’d had to strap them all down with a bungie cord to make sure that they wouldn’t fall off during landing and takeoff.

Gathering them only took a moment, and soon enough Grif was on his way over toward Red Base, while Carolina made her delivery for Blue Base.   
  
Grif was welcomed in what he could have called a heroes welcome, but he knew that it had less to do with him than it did the arrival of food. He seated himself on the couch next to Simmons and looked at the board that had set out in front of them to use.   
  
In the middle, there was a little pile of tokens. In front of each space where someone might sit, there was a small stack of colorful money already set out.   
  
This, Grif realized then, was really happening. 

It was going to suck. At least there was pizza.

* * *

 Sarge looked around the table in the lounge where the entire group had set themselves up for the night ahead. Most of them had already gathered pizza to enjoy for the night on paper plates. The arrangements around the table were good enough, with Carolina set up on a little tv tray table to the side with the game box and the remaining money that they were going to use. She’d also been granted use of the one recliner in the base.   
  
Grif and Simmons had made themselves comfortable on an old love seat. Beside them to the left, was a couch which Locus and Lopez were both sitting on. Lopez sat upright with his spine straight as the lamppost that Sarge had originally used when it had been time to work on constructing the robot. Locus sat with his datapad on the armrest beside him, probably much more interested in whatever it was that Locus normally did than the idea of _team bonding_.

Sarge swore that he would make sure that he got their newest recruit invested in one of their bonding exercises, no matter what. Lastly, there was the couch that he was sharing with Donut. Sitting with Donut was always a good deal because it meant that the best cushions, pillows, and blankets would be his to use. And they always also smelled like they’d been freshly washed.   
  
But, Sarge reminded himself as he stood up with a bottle of soda in his hand, he had a duty to do as the team leader, whether he liked it or not.   
  
As soon as he stood up, all of his men and Carolina looked up at him. Sarge cleared his throat and prepared to give one of his famous pep talks. "Listen dirtbags!" He spoke up. "I fully intend to see to it that all of you are defeated on this night. May the best Red win."   
  
Carolina cleared her throat and Sarge whipped his head to the side so that he could get a look at her and whatever it was that she would have wanted.   
  
"If I may." Carolina stood up. "As your banker and the enforcer of rules— " She shot Sarge a look to go with the phrase, " _apparently_ , I'm going to make sure that you guys play a good, clean game. There won't be any cheating here." She seemed to hesitate for a moment before she let out a somewhat irritated sigh. "And I've also been asked to make sure that everyone at the table is unarmed."   
  
"What?" Simmons spoke up, his eyes widening like dinner plates. "What do you mean, _unarmed?_ "   
  
"Yeah— " Grif shrugged. "That makes sense." He stood up and began on his way into the kitchen, and Sarge watched as Grif set an old multi tool down on the table. There was a long momentary pause, and then Simmons got up to go ahead and set his knife down there beside Grif's things. Sarge looked down at Donut, who smiled cheerily back up at him. Of course Donut wouldn't have come armed.   
  
The last person to get up was Locus, who stalked into the kitchen unhappily before unloading the small arsenal that Sarge guessed he carried on him at all times. And Sarge watched in something akin to awe as the pile of weaponry that Locus carried on him grew and grew. It started with a pistol, then a knife in a small sheath that had an orange stripe painted down it, which was then followed by a multi tool and then lastly the hilt for his energy sword.   
  
But, Sarge realized a moment too later, Carolina was staring at _him._ And she didn't look too happy about it, either.   
  
"Sarge." Carolina said. "I meant you too."   
  
"What?" Sarge asked. "I'm not armed!"   
  
Carolina frowned, and her green eyes flicked between him and a tiny space behind the couch where Sarge had stashed his shotgun earlier in the night. The way that she looked back at him, it was obvious that Carolina refused to let him get away with something. Vaguely, Sarge couldn't help but wonder if perhaps the Freelancers had played Monopoly and it had gone poorly in the past. Surely that was the only reason Carolina would want the entire table unarmed before they started the game.   
  
With a huff, Sarge picked up his shotgun and walked over to the kitchen table which was already piled high with weaponry. He set the shotgun down in the center and felt a tug of sadness because of it. However, Carolina had demanded that _everyone_ was unarmed and if there was anything that Sarge knew about Carolina, it was that she could be downright scary when she wanted to be. He didn't want to mess with that if he could help it.

Not that there was much that could be done for Lopez’s own arsenal, since it was installed in his body.    
  
By the time he got back, Sarge saw that the team was passing the dice around and rolling them, definitely in an attempt to determine who would get their first pick at the little pile of tokens that had been set out. Lopez was the first to pick, selecting a little token that was shaped like a Pelican dropship. After him was Locus, who selected a little token that was shaped like the energy swords that he and Tucker both carried. Deep down, Sarge knew that everyone at the table would have likely even _agreed_ that the particular token would be saved for Locus. When Locus ran his thumb over the shape, nobody certainly commented on it.   
  
Next to choose were Grif, who took a warthog, and Simmons, who chose an token that looked identical to the same helmet that almost everyone in the room wore daily. A sick part of Sarge almost wished that Simmons and Lopez would switch tokens. After all, Lopez had spent more time as a disembodied head than the rest of them combined. He should have taken his opportunity to embrace that fact, in Sarge's opinion.   
  
The last two tokens were left behind though. The thimble, which had managed to stay in the game for over five hundred years, even though Sarge had never seen anyone even so much as consider taking the damn thing willingly, and the shotgun which Sarge wanted, but fully expected for Donut to take since he was going to have his choice of tokens before Sarge did.   
  
Donut gave him a slightly guilty look and reached out to pick up the two tokens that were left. He held them out in the space between the two of them. "I don't really care which one I get." Donut said with a smile that Sarge couldn't help but think looked a little but more than just _forced_ . "You can take the shotgun if you want."   
  
"Well..." Sarge considered it for a long moment. He could take the shotgun, and he would definitely be happy for most of the rest of the night, if he had to guess. The chance was there that he could make Donut's night a little bit worse, and despite everything Sarge liked Donut.   
  
"Donut." Sarge spoke up. "You should take whatever piece it is you want."

Donut’s expression split into a sheepish grin. "Aw, Sarge!" He said, separating the two pieces before he held his hand out so that he could drop whichever piece he hadn’t chosen into Sarge’s palm. "That’s really nice of you."

"Of course!" Sarge said as he felt the little chunk of metal fall into his palm. When he looked, he felt his heart warm at the realization that Donut had taken the thimble for himself.

Sarge grinned at everyone around the table.

"I suppose it’s time we start playing, then." He said as he dropped his little metal shotgun figurine down on the Go square.

* * *

 The first two turns passed without anything really interesting going on aside from the purchases of the first few properties. In truth, Grif spent more time enjoying his pizza than he did paying attention to the board game. Once in a while he’d catch Locus and Lopez mumbling back and forth to each other, since the two of them were clearly in cahoots _and_ using the language barrier to their advantage.

Of course, it would have been a lot more interesting if the two of them weren’t talking about how to arrange for _one_ of them to fail so that they could drop out early.

His third turn came up, and Grif picked up the dice before giving them a good roll. He watched the dice fall on eight, and advanced his piece the proper number of spaces before he landed directly on the square with the old-timey police officer which ordered him to Go To Jail. Why some parts of the game board were up to date for the current day, but others were still very stuck in the past was something that Grif wasn’t sure of.

"Oh!" Donut gasped from beside Sarge. "How are we showing someone’s in jail?"

"Pretty sure we just put their piece there." Grif grumbled as he moved his little metal warthog to the correct place.

"But that’s not _obvious_ enough!" Donut protested. "I have handcuffs in my room-"

"Dude, no." Grif protested with a wrinkle of his nose.

Donut ran off to his room anyways.

* * *

 Simmons watched from the corner of his eye as Locus and Lopez leaned in toward each other, clearly talking about doing something but definitely not planning to make it clear what it was that they were talking about. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched as Locus passed Lopez a card, face-down.   
  
Lopez flipped it up and mumbled something back to Locus hypnotically. The one word that he was able to make out from all of it was a single " _Si_ ."   
  
The two of them shook hands. Once it was done, Locus spoke up.   
  
"There’s an exchange that Lopez and myself would like to make." He said, sure to keep his voice clear even if there _was_ a hint of that growl that there always was because it was still Locus at the end of the day, and he was likely to slip into murder voice at even the slightest provocation.

Carolina stood up and walked around to the side of the table so that she could stand behind where Locus and Lopez sat. She looked down at the arrays of fake money and property cards and grinned. "What kind of exchange would you like to make?"

Locus looked at Lopez, who stared back at him intently. He let out a quiet sigh. "Lopez and I have decided to make an exchange." He reached out and carefully removed a pair of cards from his carefully-arranged piles. Simmons craned his neck to try and figure out what he was doing, but couldn’t tell which cards Locus was using. Lopez did the same, but with one card instead.

"An exchange?" Carolina asked, reaching out for both sets of cards.

Carolina took the sets of cards and read them over, her face remaining passive the entire time. She raised an eyebrow and looked at Locus, since she clearly wasn't going to be trying to see whether or not she could get anything out of Lopez. "Care to explain?"  
  
Locus looked directly at Lopez, and if Lopez had eyes behind his helmet, Grif figured that their eyes would have been locked. "The two of us discussed the conditions." He said. "My orange property in exchange for Lopez' railroad. In addition, we each will be paying one dollar in rent for the next five times we need to pay rent on the properties in question."   
  
And Carolina looked to Lopez in search of a confirmation that it was indeed what the intended trade was. Lopez nodded and Carolina handed both cards back to the two of them. "The trade is legal." She said. "So I'll keep the conditions in mind."   
  
"Thank you." Locus said as the cards were passed back to him and Lopez, before the two of them made an exchange and decided to simply carry on with what they had been doing already.   
  
Grif gave Locus and Lopez both a bit of a stink eye, if only because he _really_ wanted to know what the two of them were up to. 

Also, he really didn’t want to be left out because he was part of Spanish Team too. In theory he’d get involved sooner than later.

* * *

Five turns in, Donut turned to Sarge and leaned in close to him, which was easy since the two of them already shared a seat. "We need to form an _alliance_ ." He said insistently. "We're the only ones here without one!"   
  
Sarge perked up, a wide grin stretching across his face. "Donut!" He said, so loudly that there wasn't any chance that anyone at the table didn't hear it. "We don't need alliances!" He said. "Only cowards need alliances! And Grif!" 

“Heard that.” Grif called from across the table.

"But sir— " Donut wriggled insistently in the hopes that he could find the right way to convince Sarge. As things stood, most of the properties on the board had already been purchased. Donut also had close to nothing, and Sarge had some properties, but had decided against buying two or three of them because they were on blue-colored squares. "We don't have _anything!_ "   
  
"Nonsense, Donut." Sarge said as he reached for the dice so that he could take his turn. "You need to be able to trust in your guts!" He tossed them, and the two dice landed. A four and a three, for a total of seven. Sarge advanced his little metal shotgun forward and landed on the chance cards deck. "And you also need to be able to trust that your enemies are fools!"   
  
Donut pursed his lips. "That doesn't sound like a good idea though, Sarge."   
  
Sarge shrugged and flipped the card over.   
  
"Get out of jail free." Sarge announced to the room. "What kind of idiot would need that sort of card?" He asked. "Everyone knows that the best way out of jail is to break out!"   
  
Grif grumbled something which sounded a lot like "I wish I got to break out of jail."   
  
Across the table though, Locus' expression had sank into something almost frustrated. "That's one of the most valuable pieces in the game."   
  
"Nonsense." Sarge said. "If it's so valuable, then I suppose that I'll be able to just sell it!"   
  
And Locus, across the table, looked down at the set of handcuffs that had been set on the center of the table for when someone going to jail came up. He seemed to consider it for a moment before he reached for a small pile of money. Donut watched him remove two bills which he offered Sarge.   
  
Sarge's eyes lit up and the exchange for the card was made.   
  
"Carolina?" Simmons asked, almost frantically. "Is that legal?"

Carolina looked from Locus to Sarge, clearly considering for a moment. She shrugged her shoulders and reached for the tattered rulebook that was in the box and flipped it open. "I have a feeling that there's nothing in the rules about it." She said.  
  
"If there's nothing making it illegal, then it's legal!" Sarge exclaimed by way of explanation. "Can we do it, pretty please?"  
  
"Let me look, and then I'll tell you."   
  
Locus didn't say anything, simply waited along with the two hundred dollars that he'd offered to Sarge in exchange for the card.   
  
Minutes later, Carolina spoke up. "I can't seem to find anything about it in the rules." She said calmly. "So I'm deciding that I'm going to allow it."   
  
" _Hot dog!_ " Sarge grabbed the 200 dollars out of Locus' hand and passed the get out of free card across the table. Locus wordlessly slipped it in with his own supply of cash. "See, who needs to get out of jail when you can have money!"  
  
Donut looked across at Locus, and watched as Locus wordlessly rolled a 9 on his turn, which allowed him to advance on the board and pass go. Carolina handed him 200 dollars.   
  
Simmons' eyes widened in understanding of what had just happened, and then he locked his eyes with Donut’s.   
  
Donut nodded.   
  
A new alliance was then formed at the table.

* * *

Lopez looked around the table, calculations running on his display as he figured out exactly how much money was at the table, and just how much Carolina had hoarded away from the players that she wasn't giving any of them. The last thing that he had to do before he knew that Carolina had close to 15000 dollars still in the bank was run through a fast conversion from dollars to Pesos, as though the exchange rate actually _mattered_ at a game of Monopoly.   
  
He looked over at Grif and spoke up.   
  
"Si trabajamos juntos, podemos sacar a Sarge del juego en dos turnos. " Lopez told him. Grif didn't make it obvious that he was listening or could tell what he was saying. Instead, he listened in silently. Lopez took it as license to continue. " Si está de acuerdo, recoja sus tarjetas de propiedad. "   
  
Grif picked up a small pile of them and flipped through, as though he was trying to figure out which properties he should build houses on.   
  
Locus cleared his throat, his own way of signalling that there was an understanding between the three of them.   
  
As much as Lopez wanted to get away from the humans and their food as soon as possible, or at least before Sarge insisted on using his chest cavity as a microwave, there was something to be enjoyed in how it was possible to pull strings among the people at the table. He also had the benefit of having the two smarter people at the table on his side, in addition to a language barrier that he was _always_ happy to exploit.   
  
He rolled the dice and advanced on the board to land on the property that he'd traded to Locus. Wordlessly, he handed over a single dollar which he fully expected to get back sooner than later.

* * *

"I don't want it!" Sarge said almost triumphantly of the space where he'd landed. It was one of the two dark blue spaces on the board, which Simmons knew could be some of the most valuable spaces on the board. It was Park Place, which Simmons knew was the second most valuable space. It had the potential to take players out of the game entirely in one round if used right. Although, he did doubt that Sarge _would_ use it right.

"Uh, are you sure?" Simmons spoke up, in the hopes that he wasn't going to just watch Sarge making an absolutely _stupid_ move. "Because that's a really good property."   
  
"Of course I am, Simmons!" Sarge said. "Why would I want to buy a blue property? I'm a Red man through and through!"   
  
Simmons swallowed. "What?" He asked. "Are you sure, because-"   
  
"Absolutely!" Sarge said again. "I don't want it."   
  
At the edge of the table, there was the quiet sound of a rulebook rustling around as Carolina flipped through to try and figure out what exactly the rules were for dealing with the situation. If _Simmons_ knew what the actual rules of the game were, he was sure that it would have made a bit more sense.   
  
Everyone looked to Carolina expectantly and waited for her ruling.   
  
She let out a sound of annoyance. "According to the rules-" She started. "If the person that lands on the space decides that he doesn't want to buy it, the space will go up for auction with a starting price of what it would be to purchase normally."   
  
The room went so silent that Simmons could have heard a pin drop. He blinked and looked around the room to try and figure out who it was that had the most money. At the moment, it looked like it was Locus (and Simmons couldn't help the momentary suspicion that told him that it was _also_ true for real world dollars, even if Locus prefered an absolutely spartan existence.)   
  
Yet Locus seemed completely unconcerned, by the way that he just leaned in towards Lopez to mumble something which Simmons could never make out. He _really_ needed to try learning Spanish sometime.   
  
Carolina stood up and everyone in the room's attention fell straight on her once more. "The auction will be starting at $350 dollars."   
  
Simmons looked around the room, then down to his stack of money. He had $673 dollars. "400." He said, since it was a good way to jump into the ring. Park Place could potentially buy him a win if he got lucky.   
  
"410."Donut spoke up, with a smile. It was a reminder that he already had the other dark blue space in Boardwalk. If he got Park Place, then Donut was going to end up being one of the most dangerous players on the board, even if he had next to nothing else that he could actually use.   
  
Lopez muttered something again, and out of the corner of his eye, he watched Grif pick up his property cards instead of his money.   
  
Again, Locus cleared his throat.   
  
The assholes had a _system_ going, Simmons realized then and there. They had a system and he had absolutely no idea what kind of system it was that they were using. Or what it was that he thought that Locus and Grif had just agreed upon.   
  
Simmons swallowed. "420!" He exclaimed, just in case he had just seen an agreement for them to try and out bet the rest of them.

Grif snickered.  
  
"Uh-" Donut swallowed. "500!"   
  
Carolina sighed. "The $350 dollar property is now going for 500."   
  
"510!" Simmons said back, deeply worried about what was happening. This was already getting out of hand.   
  
"510."

“550.” Simmons spoke up.

“550.” Carolina echoed.  
  
"600!" Donut countered once more.   
  
"700!" Sarge spoke up completely out of the blue.

The entire table's attention turned onto him. And most annoyed of all was c _learly_ Carolina.   
  
"What?" She growled at him, annoyance already spread throughout her entire body at the sound of what he'd said. "Why are you doing this?"   
  
"Because-" Sarge sputtered. "When this started, I didn't realize that there was such a high demand! And if I bet the most, then I'm the one that's in control of the supply!"   
  
Carolina's eye twitched. The way that it would when she was seriously considering doing things like committing serious violence against someone. It was the way that she acted back when they'd first met her, back when they had been getting dragged along on a mission with her completely against her will.   
  
Simmons looked across the table at Donut. Their little alliance from earlier kicked in, and both of them decided then that they were going to back away from betting on the property.   
  
The fact that neither of them were betting on it anymore seemed to go unnoticed by Carolina.   
  
"What you're saying is— " Carolina muttered from between grit teeth. "That you didn't want Park Place, until after it had already been bet on, and _now_ you want to buy it for double the price because _other_ people want it?"   
  
"Yeah!" Sarge said. "Supply and demand, just like I said."   
  
"That's not how supply and demand works!" Simmons shouted, suddenly unable to contain himself. "Once you buy it, it's going go be out of the market so it won't matter?"   
  
"Wait-" Sarge blinked, wide eyed and confused. "What do you-"   
  
"Simmons is right." Carolina said. "And the current bid is yours for 700 dollars. Does anyone else want to take it?"   
  
Nobody answered.   
  
"Going once?"   
  
Nothing.   
  
"Twice?"   
  
Silence again.   
  
"Sold." Carolina picked up the property card and pushed it in Sarge's direction. "I'll need $700 dollars."   
  
Simmons watched as Sarge picked up almost all of his money, save for a single 10 dollar bill, and a 50. He offered it up to Carolina who took it and passed it the card to Sarge, who sat down with it slightly dejected by what had just transpired.   
  
By the time of his next turn, Sarge was going to be bankrupt.

Simmons was sure of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lopez's lines this chapter, in order: 
> 
> "Si trabajamos juntos, podemos sacar a Sarge del juego en dos turnos." >>> " If we work together, we can knock Sarge out of the game in two turns."
> 
> "Si está de acuerdo, recoja sus tarjetas de propiedad." >>> " If you agree, pick up your property cards."


	3. The Game Ramps Up

A few more throws of the dice passed until it was Grif's turn and time for his, Locus, and Lopez' alliance to  _ really  _ go to work. For the last few turns, he'd been building up property and had developed what was probably the biggest collection of cards possible. Lopez hadn't bought many properties, but he had been working on getting a collection of the utilities around the board. Lastly there was Locus, who'd put together most of a monopoly and spent most of the game gathering an impressive collection of money that they could use. He also possessed three of the four railroads in the game.    
  
Grif reached for the dice and rolled them. They landed innocently on a five.

Grif looked over at Locus and then Lopez out of the corner of his eye before he reached out and moved his little metallic warthog forward. It landed him on the luxury tax space, which definitely wasn't what they had been  _ wanting _ , but he paid up the money without too much complaint.

* * *

By the time that Sarge's turn came around again, he had managed to collect a paltry amount of money, but not nearly enough that he could actually save himself should he land on the wrong spaces.    
  
But, Sarge told himself as he picked up the dice so that he could begin his turn, these things had to happen.    
  
"You should all prepare!" He said as he held the dice above the board in preparation to drop them. "This is going to be the single greatest comeback that anyone on Red Team has ever seen!"    
  
"Not fucking likely." Grif said with a little snort of amusement. “If our fights with the Blues are any indication.” 

“Nonsense, Grif.” Sarge said. “It wasn’t Blue Team that beat The Meta!”   
  
Sarge rolled the dice and watched them skip and bounce across the table before they landed with an 11. He swallowed and looked at the dice, and then the board. Eleven spaces.    
  
First, he had to pass by go, which he was rewarded with two hundred dollars for, and then landed on one Euston Road, a light blue square which had been purchased by Grif earlier in the game and had been given two unassuming houses put onto it.    
  
Sarge swallowed. "What's the rent on that?"   
  
"Ninety." Grif said, and for just a second he saw Lopez and Locus exchange a  _ look _ . "So if you could pay up that'd be great."    
  
Sarge handed over a 100 dollar bill, which he exchanged for a blue 10 dollar bill from Grif's own collection.    
  
Luck really might have been turning his way. Only ninety was much less punishing than it could have been.

* * *

"Can I buy some houses?" Donut leaned back in his seat so that he could look Carolina in the eye while he asked the question. "Is that okay?"   
  
"It is." Carolina said. "You only have one property though, so I'm going to guess that you want them all for it."    
  
"That's right." Donut chirped innocently. "I was thinking that what Boardwalk  _ really  _ needs is a residential district."    
  
Carolina nodded and turned to the game box. "How many?"    
  
"Three." Donut said. "It says that should be 200 dollars each."    
  
Carolina picked three houses out of the box and offered Donut her open hand. He placed a small stack of bills into her palm. Carolina pulled it in and counted through before she handed Donut off the three little houses.    
  
Donut placed them all on Boardwalk. "So I guess I should roll, huh?" He asked.    
  
"That's correct." Carolina said in her usual sort of deadpan. Donut picked up the dice and gave them a roll. He watched as they bounced across the table and landed on the space just in front of Locus. He almost stood up to try and read what they said, before Locus spoke up.    
  
"Six." He said. "Doubles."    
  
"Oh!" Donut moved his thimble forward and paid the small amount of rent that he owed to Simmons for it. "I guess that I roll again, right?"    
  
"That's right." Locus said as he passed the dice back across the table for Donut to take. He rolled them again, and watched them fall with a second set of doubles, this time a pair of twos. Donut moved forward the next set of spaces, and paid his rent to Locus, who didn't comment on it.    
  
When he looked down at how much money he had left, he realized that there was only barely seventy five dollars left.    
  
Donut rolled the dice one last time, and landed on free parking, which was about the best thing that he could have hoped for. He let out a sigh of relief, up until the moment that he saw Carolina reaching for the cuffs that had been placed in the center of the board.    
  
Then Donut looked at what he'd rolled.    
  
Three doubles in a row.    
  
"Wait-" Donut said. "Am I in jail?"   
  
"Yeah." Grif snorted. "Hard time."    
  
"Oh." For a second he frowned. "I guess that it's not the first time I've been in jail-" Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Locus.

Locus stared back at him, probably wholly unimpressed with the entire ordeal. His expression was blank, or as blank as Locus could make it. Grif shrugged.    
  
"Okay, so me and Church did like six hours of hard time." He explained. "Still."   
  
"It's not my first time in jail!" Donut interrupted. "Locus kept me, Sarge, Wash, and Lopez! Remember?"   
  
Just like that, the entire room went silent. Everyone's eyes turned towards Locus, who let out a breath and lowered his head. For a second, Donut could have almost sworn that he could see the slightest hint of a blush of embarrassment tinting his dark cheeks.    
  
And Locus spoke up. "It was what was required of the situation." He explained himself. "And the conditions you were kept under could hardly be called cruel."    
  
"¿Cómo no fueron crueles? " Lopez asked. Whatever it was that he'd asked of Locus, the man didn't respond visibly to it.    
  
Sarge scoffed. "A little jail time has only ever made better men out of all of you!" He said. "And me! Now I'm a proud commander that's led his men through imprisonment!"    
  
"You were imprisoned for two weeks." Locus said.    
  
Simmons snickered. "So longer than Grif was, huh?"    
  
"I like longer!" Donut exclaimed before he put on a bright smile. "I'm gonna get so hard on the inside." Donut said as he reached for the pair of handcuffs on the table. Carolina took them from his hands and clasped them around Donut's wrists. "So hard."    
  
"Gross." Carolina said as she pulled away from Donut, leaving him in the cuffs.    
  
Finally, Locus spoke up.    
  
"Weren't you all kept in prison cells?" Locus asked. “During the Blues and Reds incident?”   
  
"Yes." Carolina said through gritted teeth, with obvious frustration. "They were."    
  
The entire table went silent.    
  
"Oh." Sarge said. "I guess that we forgot about that."

* * *

Locus' turn came around and he moved his token around the board, wordless. He landed on one of the Sarge's properties and paid out the appropriate amount before he passed the dice on to Lopez.    
  
Lopez rolled and he too did the same before he landed on one of Locus' spaces, where a small fee was paid on the property.    
  
And then, he passed the dice off to Grif.    
  
Grif took his turn and only mumbled a Spanish phrase back to Locus and Lopez.    
  
With that, it was Simmons' turn. He ignored the way that Grif got up and walked back to the kitchen so that he could get himself more pizza.    
  
Simmons leaned forward in the seat and looked across at Donut, who smiled back at him as another reminder of their secret alliance, which Simmons  _ strongly  _ suspected was becoming less and less secret, but not in the same way that the Spanish speaking alliance was painfully obvious to everyone at the table.    
  
But he and Donut didn't get the benefit of a language barrier that the two of them could exploit. And any information Donut could give him on what The Spanish Alliance was saying was likely to end up being wildly inaccurate.   
  
"I guess that makes it my turn." Simmons said as he rolled the dice and watched them land on an eleven. He counted out the number of spaces that it would move him forward in the game.

His piece landed on top of Boardwalk, which was Donut's property that he'd decided to make much more expensive over the course of the game. Simmons paled at the thought of what had just happened and looked from Donut to Carolina in a panic before he looked down at his cards, money, and his properties.    
  
"Uh..." he swallowed. "How much is that going to be?"    
  
"That's 1700 dollars." Donut said, cheerily, still in cuffs.    
  
Simmons drummed his fingers on the table. "I don't know if I can pay for that."   
  
"Uh..." Donut said. "What can he do if he can't pay that?"   
  
Carolina stood up and once again everyone looked at her for the authority that only her position of banker could hold. "He can choose to mortgage as many properties as he wants to pay off the debt." Carolina explained. "How he chooses to make up for it is up to him."    
  
Simmons blinked.    
  
"I have a proposition." Locus spoke up, eyeing the amount of things that Simmons owned.    
  
Simmons picked his head up and leaned forward to get a good look at Locus and try to figure out whether or not he was serious about it. He knew that Locus was in an alliance, but there was also the issue where he was in an alliance, and had been steadily building out an advantage over the rest of the group. He probably even had an advantage over the others in his alliance.   
  
There had to be some sort of catch to whatever it was that Locus was suggesting.    
  
"What is it?"   
  
Locus removed a stack of money from his own supply. "I am willing to exchange you half of the costs of your debt." He explained himself. "In exchange, I will gain control over your green properties and your railroad."    
  
Simmons paused and glanced down at the little stack of two green cards that he'd earned over the course of the game. The two spaces had gotten him pretty far, but at the same time Locus' offer outdid the value of both of them. And it would keep him in the game. The same was also true for the railroad.    
  
Simmons narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brow in consideration of the offer.    
  
"No catch?"   
  
"No catch."    
  
"I want to pay 1 dollar rents on them!" Simmons spoke up. “Like Lopez and you already agreed on earlier.”    
  
"Deal."    
  
Locus offered Simmons a hand so that they could shake on the deal. Simmons removed the two cards and passed them across to Locus, and in exchange he got exactly half the amount of money that he would have needed to be able to pay off his debt to Donut.    
  
Grif came back in. "What'd I miss?"   
  
"I owe Donut money." Simmons said.   
  
Grif paused for a long moment. "What?" he asked. "Is he even allowed to get money if he's in jail?"   
  
"Rules say he can." Carolina said with a shrug.    
  
"Shit." Grif muttered. "I guess Hargrove must be swimming in cash then."   
  
" _ Enough _ ." Locus growled at him.    
  
Simmons tried his best to ignore it and looked down at the money that he had. He had to make a decision, and it wasn't a hard one. If he paid all of his money he was going to have to worry about what happened if he landed on another space. If he decided to sell his properties, he wouldn't have any way to get money in the future aside from passing go and chance cards.    
  
So he gathered what he could pay from his own funds and picked up the money that Locus had given him. It left him with a tidy 100 dollars left that he could use in the future, but at the least he wasn't losing his income. He passed the money across to Carolina, who counted it out before she put it down with Donut's money. Even cuffed, Donut did his best to rearrange all of it.

"Thanks, Simmons!" Donut said with a cheery smile, even as Simmons passed the dice off to him. Donut threw a seven, which wasn’t enough to get him out of jail.

And then it was Sarge’s turn.

* * *

Sarge looked down at everything that he had and then at the board, rolling the dice around in his palm. "So." He said. "I get the feeling that I'm in a real sticky situation."    
  
"Yeah." Donut said. "It seems like it. But I don’t think that being kind of sticky is  _ that _ bad."    
  
"I want to make an alliance!" Sarge shouted as he stood up. "With Simmons! And Donut!"    
  
"What?" Simmons said. "But I'm in a bad position!"    
  
"And you and Donut are working together!" Sarge explained. "My third and fourth in command working together without me! I can't have that."    
  
"I'm only third in command?" Simmons said, a sudden dejected look falling over his face. "What do you mean?"    
  
"Well, it's obvious." Sarge said. "My second in command has to be the most competent soldier that this army has to offer. I don't care that he's the rookie!"    
  
All of the heads at the table turned to look at Locus.    
  
"So I guess me being highest ranked still doesn't matter." Grif muttered. "So much for chain of command."    
  
"I thought I was your favorite, Sarge!" Donut said. "You always call me  _ son! _ "   
  
"Of course you're my favorite, Donut." Sarge explained himself. "Why wouldn't you be?!"   
  
"You call him son?" Simmons gasped in obvious offense.    
  
"¿Por qué no estoy incluido? "   
  
And just like that, Sarge realized that he'd just made a dire mistake. He'd done something that it appeared was already ruining the night. Even more than the game was, and that was absolutely unacceptable.   
  
Carolina let out a sigh. "Should I go?" She asked. "Because it sounds like you guys have some things that you are going to need to talk about."    
  
"Uh..." Sarge hesitated. "I don't think so. In case this argument turns to violence!"    
  
"It won't." Locus spoke up, his voice hard and his shoulders squared for a fight. "We will be able to handle this."    
  
Simmons sighed. "You know what-" He said. "I don't think me and Donut want you in our alliance."    
  
"Oh, I don't know." Donut said. "I think Sarge could help us! He has the other blue space!"    
  
"And he's not using it!" Simmons squeaked. "And he's like one turn away from losing!"    
  
"So are you." Grif spoke up. "Honestly, you guys might be better off quitting while you can."    
  
Sarge paused for a moment. "I don't want to quit though!" He said. "I want to play it out! Because I wanted to have a nice night with my team."    
  
Grif snorted. "I'm pretty sure you  _ ordered  _ us to this because you wanted to see whether we could stay together."    
  
Carolina stood up. "This is why I ordered all of you to stay unarmed." She said. "Because I had a feeling that this would happen."    
  
Sarge clamped his mouth shut at the realization of just how bad things had just become. He'd wanted to play board games with his friends, that was true. Now they were all turning on him, when he really didn't want that. "Okay!" he said."Fine, I take it back!"    
  
"Do you?" Simmons spat.    
  
"Yes!"   
  
There was a quiet sigh off to the side of the table. Locus stood up, taller than the rest of them and stronger and wider. He leaned down and began to gather his things that were in front of him.

"Wait." Grif said. "What are you doing?"   
  
"I'm not interested in this." Locus said, removing his piece from the board. He looked to Carolina, and she nodded before she gestured towards the box. He gently nudged his way towards it, and Sarge felt his heart sink when he realized just what was happening.   
  
"Wait." He said. "You're.... quitting?"   
  
"I'm not interested in arguments." Locus explained. "Thank you for the night while it was still good." He began to walk back toward the kitchen. "I'm heading back to my ship. Carolina, Grif, you may still come over later on if you'd like to."   
  
"Well, I guess that calls it for me too." Grif stood up. "I'm really not interested in a fight like this either. And hanging out on A'rynasea sounds better anyways."   
  
"Wait!" Sarge said. He turned to Carolina at the same time that he reached out to swat his game piece off of the board. "I'm out of the game!"   
  
The whole room went silent. Locus stopped in the doorway and looked back at the rest of them over his shoulder.   
  
Sarge took a breath. "I'm out! I wanted a night with all of you. I didn't mean to upset all of you."  
  
Carolina took a few steps forward. "How about this." She began. "Because half of the field has just forfeited, I'm going to make a suggestion."   
  
Simmons quieted down and he looked back at her. "What kind of suggestion?"   
  
"This clearly isn't going well." She said. "How about all of you pack the game up, and you just try and enjoy the rest of the night? You still have pizza, and all you'd have to do is move the couches to enjoy a movie night."   
  
Simmons looked down at the boardgame, and then across at Sarge.   
  
"I'd like that." Sarge said. "But only if my team wants it too."   
  
"Este juego es aburrido." Lopez offered, withdrawing his piece from the board.   
  
Simmons looked at the two pieces that were left, and then across the table at Donut. "I guess this means that you win, Donut."   
  
"I _win?_ " Donut asked, "You mean it?"   
  
"Yeah." Simmons said. "A movie night does sound a lot better."   
  
Donut grinned and made an attempt at a fist bump, which didn't go very well since he was still wearing the handcuffs. Carolina shook her head and smiled, but she walked over to him and began to unlock him. She then looked over at Locus.   
  
"Still heading back to your ship?"  
  
"No." Locus said quietly. "I suppose not."   
  
With that, he stepped back in, and Sarge put himself to work as the two of them took positions at different ends of one of the couches and began to push it back against the wall so that it was going to be able to face the television.

Half an hour later, the room was set, the game was put away, and an impromptu sort of blanket nest had been formed on the floor.

Sarge flopped down onto one of the couches and made himself comfortable.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lopez's lines this chapter, in order: 
> 
> "¿Cómo no fueron crueles?" >>> "How were they not cruel?"
> 
> "¿Por qué no estoy incluido?" >>> "Why am I not included?"
> 
> "Este juego es aburrido." >>> "This game is boring."


	4. Epilogue: A Monopoly On Misery

Even with the little argument resolved, there were a lot of problems with Red Team. At the end of the day, Grif knew perfectly well that there wasn’t a single person on the team that wasn’t a colossal fucking asshole. 

There were even more problems to be found with movie nights, if only because of the issue where there were just not a whole lot of movies that they could actually watch. Most of the old movies, which included Sarge’s stupid fucking laserdiscs, had all been destroyed in the fire that had ruined both the old Red  _ and _ Blue bases. 

That said, Grif really didn’t mind movie nights. They were usually a hell of a lot better than board game nights. They were nights where he was allowed to chill out, and nobody got weird about it if he ended up falling asleep on the couch. And there was pizza that he could enjoy, and he and Locus had enjoyed some beers before they’d come down for the board game anyways. 

He didn’t even care that they were watching fucking Reservoir Dogs for the millionth time because it was the only thing that had survived.  _ Again. _

The point was that shit could actually be pretty comfy. Him and Simmons could share the couch. Lopez had decided to wander off to find something better to do, or at least something that he would have deemed to be less of a waste of his time. 

Locus ended up on the couch with Carolina, and Donut leaned back against Locus’ legs. Once in a while Locus would reach out to just gently stroke Donut’s hair, and it was something that went uncommented on by everyone there. 

Either way, it seemed that there were definitely three things about the night’s debacle that everyone could agree on. 

One: Monopoly sucked. It sucked in 1935, and it still sucked in 2565. 

Two: Pizza was always good. Always. 

Three: Red Team sometimes sucked, but it didn’t  _ always _ suck. 

Not like Monopoly sucked, at least. 

**Author's Note:**

> Any and all comments and criticism are greatly appreciated.
> 
> [I'm on tumblr. Sometimes stuff happens. I'm always willing to take new prompts and questions there!](http://arynasea.tumblr.com/)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Tango](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16535417) by [Liara_90](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liara_90/pseuds/Liara_90)




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